Northern universities ‘can lead way’

INVESTING IN existing northern universities would be a better way forward than creating a new ‘‘MIT of the North’’ from scratch to boost the region’s economy, according to a leading academic.

Professor Chris Day, ViceChancellor of Newcastle University and chair of the N8 Research Partnership representing leading research universities in the North, welcomed the plan outlined by Tory Minister Jake Berry for a technological institute similar to the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.

Northern Powerhouse Minister Mr Berry said the Government was in talks to set up a centre in the North to invent products for the global market, with Leeds as a suggested home.

Professor Day told the BBC that more investment in research and development would be very welcome but questioned whether it should be based at one site.

He said: “The Northern Powerhouse

that Jake Berry has been championing is about boosting the local economy by investing in skills, innovation, transport and culture. The universities produce those skills, they produce the innovation and the knowledge, you have eight world-leading universities in the North.

“They are already working really closely together on things like the green economy, agriculture and food and energy.”

Professor Day added: “I would probably favour, as would my N8 partners, working on the networks that we have already. We have the Henry Royce Institute in Manchester but with centres at Sheffield, Liverpool, Imperial, Oxford and Cambridge.

“Having networks of these excellent centres, working closely with industry, is the way forward rather than starting from scratch with a new institution which would take years to produce results.”